Using low earth orbit satellites to overcome latency

ABSTRACT

A method and system for using low earth orbit satellites to overcome latency is presented. In one embodiment, the method may include establishing a data session using a first channel having a first characteristic different than a second characteristic of a second channel, wherein the first channel is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) channel and wherein the second channel is a Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) channel; determining a type of traffic involved in the data session; determining whether the second channel should be used for the data session; when the second channel should be used for the data session, then switching the data session from the first channel to the second channel; and periodically monitoring the data session to determine whether the second channel should continue to be used for the data session.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S.Provisional Pat. App. No. 62/833,266, filed Apr. 12, 2019, titled “UsingLow Earth Orbit Satellites To Overcome Latency” which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. Thisapplication hereby incorporates by reference, for all purposes, each ofthe following publications in their entirety for all purposes: U.S. Pat.App. Pub. Nos. US20140133456A1, US20150094114A1, US20150098385A1,US20150098387A1, US20150257051A1, US20160044531A1, US20170013513A1,US20170019375A1, US20170026845A1, US20170048710A1, US20170055186A1,US20170064621A1, US20170070436A1, US20170077979A1, US20170111482A1,US20170127409A1, US20170171828A1, US20170181119A1, US20170202006A1,US20170208560A1, US20170238278A1, US20170257133A1, US20170272330A1,US20170273134A1, US20170288813A1, US20170295510A1, US20170303163A1,US20170347307A1, US20180123950A1, and US20180152865A1; and U.S. Pat.Nos. 8,867,418, 8,879,416, 9,107,092, 9,113,352, 9,232,547, and9,455,959.

BACKGROUND

A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is technically an Earth-centered orbit with analtitude of 2,000 km (1,200 mi) or less (approximately one third of theradius of Earth), or with at least 11.25 periods per day (an orbitalperiod of 128 minutes or less) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. TheInternational Space Station conducts operations in LEO. All crewed spacestations to date, as well as the majority of satellites, have been inLEO. In 2017, a very-low LEO orbit began to be seen in regulatoryfilings. This orbit, referred to as “VLEO”, requires the use of noveltechnologies for orbit raising because they operate in orbits that wouldordinarily decay too soon to be economically useful. However, satellitesin LEO have a small momentary field of view, only able to observe andcommunicate with a fraction of the Earth at a time, meaning a network(or “constellation”) of satellites is required to in order to providecontinuous coverage.

Satellites in lower regions of LEO also suffer from fast orbital decay,requiring either periodic reboosting to maintain a stable orbit, orlaunching replacement satellites when old ones re-enter. Instead, themajority of satellites used for communication utilize a geostationaryorbit, often referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO), isa circular geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above Earth'sequator and following the direction of Earth's rotation. An object insuch an orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, toground observers. Communications satellites and weather satellites areoften placed in geostationary orbits, so that the satellite antennae(located on Earth) that communicate with them do not have to rotate totrack them, but can be pointed permanently at the position in the skywhere the satellites are located. The downside of GEO is that it issignificantly more expensive to raise a satellite to GEO as compared toLEO.

SUMMARY

The inventors have contemplated various methods and systems, includingusing low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, to overcome communications linklatency issues.

In a first embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: establishing adata session using a first channel having a first characteristicdifferent than a second characteristic of a second channel, wherein thefirst channel may be a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) channel and The secondchannel may be a Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) channel;determining a type of traffic involved in the data session; determining,based on the first characteristic of the first channel and the secondcharacteristic of the second channel and the type of traffic involved,whether the second channel should be used for the data session; when thesecond channel should be used for the data session, then switching thedata session from the first channel to the second channel; andperiodically monitoring the data session to determine whether the secondchannel should continue to be used for the data session.

The establishing a data session using a first channel may compriseestablishing a data session using an Internet of Things (IoT) channel ora cellular channel. Using a second channel may comprise using an IoTchannel or a cellular channel. The first characteristic may be latencyof the first channel and the second characteristic may be latency of thesecond channel. The first characteristic may be cost associated with thefirst channel and the second characteristic may be cost associated withthe second channel. The first characteristic may be an availability ofthe first channel. The first characteristic or the second characteristicmay be at least one Quality of Service (QOS) performance metricassociated with the data session. Using the first channel may compriseusing the LEO, and the method may further comprise communicating withthe LEO using a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT). The data sessionmay comprise a first part and a second part, and using the first channelfor the first part of the data session and using the second channel forthe second part of the data session. Using the first channel maycomprise using signaling data for the first part of the data session andwherein using the second channel may comprise using data traffic for thesecond part of the data session.

In a second embodiment, a system is disclosed, comprising: a terrestrialbase station; a first channel having a first characteristic, the firstchannel in communication with the terrestrial base station, The firstchannel may be a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) channel and wherein a f a datasession may be established using the first channel; a second channelhaving a second characteristic, the second channel in communication withthe terrestrial base station., The second channel may be aGeosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) channel and The secondcharacteristic may be different from the first characteristic; wherein adetermination may be made, based on the first characteristic of thefirst channel and the second characteristic of the second channel andthe type of traffic involved in the data session, whether the secondchannel should be used for the data session; and when the second channelshould be used for the data session, then the data session may beswitched from the first channel to the second channel and The datasession may be periodically monitored to determine whether the secondchannel should continue to be used for the data session.

The first channel may be an Internet of Things (IoT) channel or acellular channel. The second channel may be an IoT channel or a cellularchannel. The first characteristic may be latency of the first channeland the second characteristic may be latency of the second channel. Thefirst characteristic may be cost associated with the first channel andthe second characteristic may be cost associated with the secondchannel. The first characteristic may be an availability of the firstchannel. The first characteristic may be at least one Quality of Service(QOS) performance metric associated with the data session. Using thefirst channel may comprise using the LEO, and The method may furthercomprise communicating with the LEO using a Very Small Aperture Terminal(VSAT). The data session may comprise a first part and a second part,and using the first channel for the first part of the data session andusing the second channel for the second part of the data session. Usingthe first channel may comprise using signaling data for the first partof the data session and wherein using the second channel may compriseusing data traffic for the second part of the data session.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a satellite orbital configuration with LEO and GEO.

FIG. 2 depicts a network architecture, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a further network architecture, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a flowchart of a determination to switch channels, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 depicts a coordinating node, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts a base station, in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Geostationary satellites are commonly used for telecommunications.However, in consideration of the round trip latency challengesgeostationary satellite operators face, the inventors have recognizedthat it is possible to leverage the network awareness of a networkcoordinator such as the Parallel Wireless HNG to transfer traffic fromone channel with certain characteristics to another with differentcharacteristics.

In some embodiments, LEO satellites with their low latency can be usedas initial session establishment before the network coordinator learnsthe characteristics of the type of traffic involved in the session. Fornominated types such as video downloads and file transfers where the enduser does not care about latency once the stream is open, the networkcoordinator can pass transmission of the stream from the (expensive) LEOto the (cheaper) GEO on a session by session basis and monitor thetraffic to ensure that its characteristics remain the same (to ensure,for example, that someone doesn't switch from watching streaming tointeractive services where latency is important).

The disclosed methods and systems are applicable to all communicationschannels where an alternative high capacity but higher latency channelexists for traffic for which is latency irrelevant. This is onlypossible where a system is aware of the traffic flows and can select theappropriate route—identified here as the network coordinator function.

A low bandwidth low latency channel (e.g., first responder mesh or LTEbackhaul, LEO, 2G, etc.) can be used for initial traffic channelestablishment, in some embodiments, then a networkconcentrator/coordination node such as the PW HNG may assess the natureof the session and pass off to a higher bandwidth higher latency mediumif it is able to be tolerated by the use case. This presupposes thatthere are multiple backhauls available. The direction of streaming isirrelevant, i.e., up or downstream use cases apply equally.

In some embodiments, a cell site would be connected to both LEO and GEObackhaul (consider a remote disaster in a public safety setting with noterrestrial backhaul at all), and according to the present disclosure,initial communications/coordination/browsing is done using LEO with lowlatency but higher cost, and only latency-tolerating applications suchas video streaming or data feeds switch to lower cost channels.

In some embodiments, only enough visibility of the traffic latencyrequirements is required to allow HNG to decide a route for a givensession/stream and review the decision over time in case usage changes.The inventors have contemplated scenarios in which payload traffic doesnot have to all pass via the HNG or coordinating node for efficiency.However, even if all traffic—payload or signaling—from the base stationgoes through the HNG, the high latency tolerant traffic is routed awayfrom the higher cost, more easily congested, lower latency channel. Insome embodiments, satellite backhaul could be used directly from thebase station, not going through the HNG, with the CWS communicating viaanother signaling pathway to the HNG, using the LEO route, and for theHNG to determine whether to send data plane traffic via LEO or GEO basedon data from the CWS and the separate signaling pathway. The separatesignaling pathway could be another cellular network, SMS, microwave,NLOS networking of another type, a physical telecom line, or any othernetwork.

FIG. 1 depicts a satellite orbital configuration with LEO and GEO.Satellites 102 and 103 orbit the Earth 101. LEO satellite 102 is locatedat a much lower altitude, about 1,000 miles above the Earth, andadditionally is in rapid motion from the viewpoint of an observer onearth. For example, the International Space Station (ISS), which is inLEO, typically orbits the Earth every 90 minutes and is visible foranywhere between 5 minutes and a few seconds, for up to 4 or 5 times perday, for a typical observer. By contrast, satellite 103 is only visiblefrom certain areas on the Earth, but to the typical observer does notmove in the sky, since the satellite is moving at the same rate as therotation of the earth. However, satellite 103 is much further away(22,300 miles) from the observer, which introduces approximately 120 msof latency for every communication.

FIG. 2 depicts a network architecture, in accordance with someembodiments. User equipments UE 1 201 and UE 2 202 are connected toterrestrial base station 203, which has a satellite ground station, suchas a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), for communication with LEOsatellite 205 and GEO satellite 204 with both signaling and datatraffic. The LEO and GEO satellites are connected to one or morecoordinating servers 206. The coordinating servers serve to coordinatebase station 203 while also providing gateway and/or virtualizationfunctionality toward core network 207, 208, 209. The core network shownis an LTE core network that includes mobility management entity 207,packet data network gateway 208, and serving gateway 209.

In some embodiments, the coordinating servers may be redundant or mayperform load balancing or may otherwise provide increased redundancy andavailability, as is known in the art. In some embodiments one VSAT maybe used for communicating with both LEO and GEO satellites 205 and 204,respectively. In some embodiments, multiple VSATs may be used toseparately provide dedicated communications with LEO and GEO satellites,without the burden of reacquiring the satellite signal and enabling bothconnections to be maintained at the same time. Any core network,multiple core networks, the public Internet, etc. may be used instead ofthe LTE core network shown.

In some embodiments, the base station 203 is responsible forestablishing an initial connection with the coordinating nodes 206,which then results in data flowing back and forth between the UEs andthe core network via the coordinating nodes and via the satellitebackhauls. However, in some embodiments, the base station maydiscriminate between the LEO satellite and the GEO satellite forpurposes of establishing the connection. For example, the LEO satellitehas lower latency and can be used to establish the connection.Subsequent communications may utilize both the LEO and the GEOsatellite.

FIG. 3 depicts a further network architecture, in accordance with someembodiments. UEs 301 and 302 are shown, connecting to terrestrial basestation 303, which is in communication, via GEO satellite 304 and LEOsatellite 305, to coordinating servers 306 and core network nodes 307,308, 309. In the depicted use case, signaling is handled by LEOsatellite 305, which reduces latency for establishment of any signaling,and data traffic is handled by GEO satellite 304. This discriminationmay be performed by coordinating servers 306, which communicates thedistinction to the base station 303.

FIG. 4 depicts a flowchart of a determination to switch channels, inaccordance with some embodiments. At step 401, initial sessionestablishment is performed using LEO backhaul. At step 402, the type oftraffic involved in the data session is learned, in some embodiments atthe coordinating node. At step 403, the determining node may determinewhether a specific data session is a stream without latency sensitivity.If yes, the backhaul for the particular data session may be switchedfrom LEO to GEO backhaul, in some embodiments. At step 405, theparticular data session may be periodically monitored to ensure that theLEO/GEO backhaul is the correct one given current needs. In someembodiments, the channels may be backhaul channels or transport channelsfor a particular data stream.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a coordinating node, in accordance withsome embodiments. Virtualization server 501 provides services to, and iscoupled to, eNodeB 1 502 and eNodeB 5 503, on a RAN side of a network(i.e., inside of the gateway). Virtualization server 501 providesservices to, and is coupled to, MME 504, macro eNodeB 505, and macroeNodeB 506, on a core network side of the network (outside of thegateway). Virtualization server 501 corresponds to LAC 110, in someembodiments.

Within virtualization server 501 are self-organizing network (SON)module 511, containing neighbor relation table (NRT) 512 and UEmeasurement report processing module 513; evolved packet core (EPC)module 521 (which could be a generalized core network module supportingone or multiple non-4G core networks), containing EPC finite statemachine module 522 and macro eNodeB table 523; radio access network(RAN) module 531, containing eNodeB finite state machine module 532 andeNodeB table 534; and user equipment (UE) module 541, containing UEfinite state machine module 542 and S1/X2 handover mapping table 543. UEmodule 541 may further contain a list of streams and/or bearers, and mayperform decryption and deep packet inspection. In some embodiments, amapping of streams to backhauls may be contained either in the UEmodule, the EPC module, or another module. In some embodiments, SONmodule 511 may perform NRT maintenance, load information processing andfractional frequency reuse (FFR) processing; RAN module 531 may performX2 association management with eNodeBs 502, 503; EPC module 521 mayperform X2 association management with macro eNodeBs 505, 506; and UEmodule may perform X2 handover and S1/X2 translation between eNodeBs502, 503 and macro eNodeBs 505, 506. Finite state machine modules 522,532, 542 may include one or more states for modeling the operationalstate of a connected EPC, UE, or RAN, respectively. More than one FSMmay be present at each of modules 521, 531, 541, so that virtualizationserver 501 may be enabled to model the operational state of severalnetwork nodes at once. All the above managers/modules interact with eachother to accomplish the assigned functionality. The functions describedas being performed at one module herein may be performed at anothermodule, or outside of a particular module, without loss of generality.Virtualization server 501 may include a network processing unit forperforming packet forwarding and routing operations, and for performingdeep packet inspection.

In some embodiments, virtualization server 501 may include one or moreprocessors, each with one or more processor cores. Each of modules 511,521, 531, and 541 are coupled to each other within virtualization server501, and may execute on one or more shared processors (not shown)coupled with memory (not shown). Virtualization server 501 may include areal-time operating system, such as a Linux operating system, and mayinclude an operating system that distributes tasks among multiple cores.Virtualization server 501 may provide one or more of modules 511, 521,531, 541 as processes, threads, user-mode or kernel-mode processes,processes in hardware or in software, in some embodiments. In someembodiments, each of modules 511, 521, 531, 541 may execute on the samevirtualization server 501; in other embodiments, these modules mayexecute on remote machines connected via a network. In some embodiments,a remote failover virtualization server (not shown) may be madeavailable for handling failures at virtualization server 501. Thefailover mechanism may involve checkpointing operations atvirtualization server 501 in each of the modules therein. Certainoperations may be hardware accelerated, such as network processingtasks, IPsec tasks, deep packet inspection tasks, or other tasks.

Virtualization server 501 may include one or more network interfaces;these network interfaces may include Ethernet (10/100/1000/10000 Mbit)interfaces, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/af/ad) interfaces, 3G or 6Ginterfaces, virtual interfaces, or other interfaces. In someembodiments, one network interface may be directed towards the corenetwork and located at, or coupled to, EPC module 521; this interfacewould communicate using the S1 protocol to MME 504 and using the X2protocol to macro cells 505, 506. In some embodiments, another networkinterface may be directed towards one or more RANs internal to thegateway and connected to RAN module 531, for communicating to RANs 502,using either S1 or X2 as appropriate. Translation or interworking ofprotocols may occur at one or more of modules 511, 521, 531, or 541 asappropriate. In some embodiments, SON module 511 may also be coupled toan interface for communicating with RANs 502, 503; this interface may belabeled the SON interface, and the NETCONF protocol (XML over HTTPS) maybe used to communicate in a proprietary or non-proprietary manner withRANs 502, 503 regarding network configuration, orchestration, andcoordination operations.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a base station, in accordance with someembodiments. Base station 600 may include processor 602, processormemory 604 in communication with the processor, baseband processor 606,and baseband processor memory 608 in communication with the basebandprocessor. Base station 600 may also include first radio transceiver 610and second radio transceiver 612, internal universal serial bus (USB)616, and subscriber information module card (SIM card) 618 coupled toUSB bus 614. In some embodiments, the second radio transceiver 612itself may be coupled to USB bus 614, and communications from thebaseband processor may be passed through USB port 614 to the processor.The base station may be a mesh network base station. The processor 602may be coupled directly to one or more VSAT satellite backhauls viaconnection 616, which may also be via the USB bus 614, in someembodiments.

A virtualization layer 630 may also be included for mediatingcommunications with an evolved packet core EPC, specifically includingthe core network EPC (not shown) and local evolved packet core (EPC)module 620. Local EPC 620 may be used for authenticating users andperforming other EPC-dependent functions when no backhaul link isavailable. Local EPC 620 may include local HSS 622, local MME 624, localSGW 626, and local PGW 628, as well as other modules. Local EPC 620 mayincorporate these modules as software modules, processes, or containers.Local EPC 620 may alternatively incorporate these modules as a smallnumber of monolithic software processes. Virtualization layer 630 andlocal EPC 620 may each run on processor 602 or on another processor, ormay be located within another device.

Processor 602 and baseband processor 606 are in communication with oneanother. Processor 602 may perform routing functions, and may determineif/when a switch in network configuration is needed. Baseband processor606 may generate and receive radio signals for both radio transceivers610 and 612, based on instructions from processor 602. In someembodiments, processors 602 and 606 may be on the same physical logicboard. In other embodiments, they may be on separate logic boards.Baseband processing for second radio transceiver 612 and for the VSATsmay be handled by the baseband processor 606, in some embodiments, or byexternal processors or embedded processors, in various embodiments.

The first radio transceiver 610 may be a radio transceiver capable ofproviding LTE eNodeB access network functionality to UEs, and may becapable of higher power and multi-channel OFDMA. The second radiotransceiver 612 may be a radio transceiver capable of providing LTE UEfunctionality for wireless backhaul. Both transceivers 610 and 612 arecapable of receiving and transmitting on one or more LTE bands. In someembodiments, either or both of transceivers 610 and 612 may be capableof providing both LTE eNodeB and LTE UE functionality. Transceiver 610may be coupled to processor 602 via a Peripheral ComponentInterconnect-Express (PCI-E) bus, and/or via a daughtercard. Astransceiver 612 is for providing LTE UE functionality, in effectemulating a user equipment, it may be connected via the same ordifferent PCI-E bus, or by a USB bus, and may also be coupled to SIMcard 618.

SIM card 618 may provide information required for authenticating thesimulated UE to the evolved packet core (EPC). When no access to anoperator EPC is available, local EPC 620 may be used, or another localEPC on the network may be used. This information may be stored withinthe SIM card, and may include one or more of an international mobileequipment identity (IMEI), international mobile subscriber identity(IMSI), or other parameter needed to identify a UE. Special parametersmay also be stored in the SIM card or provided by the processor duringprocessing to identify to a target eNodeB that device 600 is not anordinary UE but instead is a special UE for providing backhaul to device600.

In addition to satellite backhaul, wired backhaul or wireless backhaulmay be used. Wired backhaul may be an Ethernet-based backhaul (includingGigabit Ethernet), or a fiber-optic backhaul connection, or acable-based backhaul connection, in some embodiments. Additionally,wireless backhaul may be provided in addition to wireless transceivers610 and 612, which may be Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad/ah, Bluetooth,ZigBee, microwave (including line-of-sight microwave), or anotherwireless backhaul connection. Any of the wired and wireless connectionsmay be used for either access or backhaul, according to identifiednetwork conditions and needs, and may be under the control of processor602 for reconfiguration.

Other elements and/or modules may also be included, such as a homeeNodeB, a local gateway (LGW), a self-organizing network (SON) module,or another module. Additional radio amplifiers, radio transceiversand/or wired network connections may also be included.

Processor 602 may identify the appropriate network configuration, andmay perform routing of packets from one network interface to anotheraccordingly. Processor 602 may use memory 604, in particular to store arouting table to be used for routing packets. Baseband processor 606 mayperform operations to generate the radio frequency signals fortransmission or retransmission by both transceivers 610 and 612.Baseband processor 606 may also perform operations to decode signalsreceived by transceivers 610 and 612. Baseband processor 606 may usememory 608 to perform these tasks.

In some embodiments, data flows may be passed on a session-by-sessionbasis. In some embodiments, various other units of data flow may beused, in addition to or in conjunction with sessions, for example, PDPcontexts, GTP tunnels, IPsec tunnels, data bearers, 5G or non-5G networkslices, IP flows sharing a specific IP address as destination/source, IPflows having a similar QCI, IP flows with a particular routing, IP flowswith particular lengths of packets, etc. In some embodiments, data flowsmay be passed back and forth from GEO to LEO and vice versa as needed.In some embodiments, a mapping table may be used at the base station, inconjunction with the discrimination functiBaseband processing for secondradio transceiver 612 and for the VSATs may be handled by the basebandprocessor 606, in some embodiments, or by external processors orembedded processors, in various embodiments, to determine which flows goto which backhaul.

In some embodiments, any gateway node can provide the LEO/GEOdiscrimination function. In some embodiments, decryption may be used todetermine the type and nature of traffic passing through the networknode for performing LEO/GEO discrimination. For example, where theencryption endpoints are the UE on one end and the HNG at the other endso all traffic does pass through the HNG. In some embodiments, theLEO/GEO discrimination function may be provided in conjunction with deeppacket inspection (DPI), lawful intercept, local breakout, securitygateway functionality, or other functions. In some embodiments, innetwork architectures with control and user plane separation (CUPS), anyuser plane node may provide LEO/GEO discrimination. In some embodiments,other routing changes may be performed, for example, in the case thatthe LEO network is connected with different peering networks, differentDNS, distributed database, caching, etc. servers may be prioritized. Insome embodiments, other transport layer changes may be adapted togetherwith the LEO/GEO discrimination determination, for example, alterationof packet window size, buffer size, max packet size.

In some embodiments the base station or the UE may perform the LEO/GEOdiscrimination itself In some embodiments the GEO satellite may onlyhandle a small subset of the traffic that has been identified as nothaving strict latency requirements. In some embodiments, the LEOsatellite may retain some or all of the data traffic. In someembodiments, the LEO satellite may be used only for signaling. In someembodiments, the coordinating nodes may be in orbit and/or at the LEOnodes. In some embodiments, the core network may perform thefunctionality described herein as being at the coordinating nodes. Insome embodiments, the coordinating nodes may perform inter-radio accesstechnology (inter-RAT) or multi-RAT coordination and may distinguishbetween different needs of different RATs at the base station or ofdifferent users on different RATs at the base station. In someembodiments, the base station or coordinating node may determine whetheror not to use LEO/GEO or other backhaul, such as fixed wireless or fixedwired backhaul, and may discriminate on the same per-stream basis anduse the same methods described herein for such discrimination.

In some embodiments, other factors may be taken into account by thediscrimination function, such as: economic cost of LEO versus GEO;availability of LEO/GEO; orbital characteristics and visibility ofLEO/GEO; height of the LEO/GEO receiver; cost of electrical power; costof data bandwidth; cost of data fronthaul; latency characteristics ofother links in the network as well as the LEO/GEO satellite link;latency characteristics of the user traffic; what specific users will beaffected; prepaid/postpaid status of the user; quality of serviceparameters, including QCI, QOS, DHCP; time of day; estimated usage;historical estimates of usage; latency cost of handover betweendifferent LEO satellites; destination and/or source of traffic; packetsequence numbers; congestion; required throughput; L1/L2/L3characteristics; and other factors.

The present disclosure could be used with any telecommunications system,including a cellular system (e.g., 2G/3G/4G/5G or other); a Wi-Fi ornon-cellular wireless area network; a backhaul system for a non-wirelesscommunications system; a system integrated into vehicles for providingwireless access to vehicles, including self-driving cars; etc. Inparticular, the inventors have appreciated that the latency-drivenrequirements of 5G may enable the use of LEO satellites to providelow-latency flows while moving higher-latency flows to GEO.

The inventors have contemplated the use of the present disclosure toprovide narrowband Internet of Things (NBIOT) support as well. Supportfor narrowband (i.e., low bandwidth) devices, such as IoT devices, isunderstood in the art to be able to be provided by 2G data services,such as EDGE or GPRS, and as being able to be provided by 2G cells.Characteristics of NBIOT data streams can be used to discriminatebetween LEO and GEO channels for transport of the data, as describedhereinabove. Characteristics of NBIOT data streams, including requiredthroughput, congestion, etc. can be used to discriminate between 2G andother RAT (such as 4G or 5G) channels for transport of the data, usingthe general principles described hereinabove.

The inventors have more generally considered the use of one backhaultransport path or another, based on characteristics of the data stream.The inventors have also more generally considered the use of real-timenetwork context of each session to determine a routing decision, andperiodically reviewing the routing of the data flow, based on thevarious characteristics described herein. Other path discriminationalternatives in addition to the pair of LEO/GEO could be: IoT/other RAT;IoT/LEO; IoT/GEO.

The foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplaryembodiments of the present invention. In additional embodiments, themethods described herein can be stored on a computer readable mediumsuch as a computer memory storage, a compact disk (CD), flash drive,optical drive, or the like. Further, the computer readable medium couldbe distributed across memory storage devices within multiple servers,multi-RAT nodes, controllers, computing cloud components, mobile nodes,and the like. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, thepresent invention may be embodied in other specific forms withoutdeparting from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Forexample, wireless network topology can also apply to wired networks,optical networks, and the like. Various components in the devicesdescribed herein may be added, removed, or substituted with those havingthe same or similar functionality. Various steps as described in thefigures and specification may be added or removed from the processesdescribed herein, and the steps described may be performed in analternative order, consistent with the spirit of the invention.Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to beillustrative, but not limiting of the scope of the invention, as well asother claims. The disclosure, including any readily discernible variantsof the teachings herein, defines, in part, the scope of the foregoingclaim terminology.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: establishing acellular data backhaul session using a first channel having a firstcharacteristic different than a second characteristic of a secondchannel, wherein the first channel is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) channeland wherein the second channel is a Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit(GEO) channel; determining, a type of traffic involved in the datasession; determining, based on the first characteristic of the firstchannel and the second characteristic of the second channel and the typeof traffic involved, whether the second channel should be used for thedata session; when the second channel should be used for the datasession, then switching the data session from the first channel to thesecond channel; periodically monitoring the data session to determinewhether the second channel should continue to be used for the datasession; and wherein the data session comprises a first part and asecond part, and using the first channel for the first part of the datasession and using the second channel for the second part of the datasession.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing a datasession using a first channel comprises establishing a data sessionusing an Internet of Things (IoT) channel.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein using a second channel comprises using an IoT channel or acellular channel.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein using the firstchannel comprises using the LEO, and further comprising communicatingwith the LEO using a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT).
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein determining, based on the first characteristic ofthe first channel and the second characteristic of the second channelcomprises determining wherein the first characteristic is latency of thefirst channel and the second characteristic is latency of the secondchannel.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on thefirst characteristic of the first channel and the second characteristicof the second channel comprises determining wherein the firstcharacteristic is cost associated with the first channel and the secondcharacteristic is cost associated with the second channel.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein determining, based on the first characteristic ofthe first channel comprises determining wherein the first characteristicis an availability of the first channel.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein determining, based on the first characteristic of the firstchannel and the second characteristic of the second channel comprisesdetermining wherein the first characteristic or the secondcharacteristic is at least one Quality of Service (QOS) performancemetric associated with the data session.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein using the first channel comprises using signaling data for thefirst part of the data session and wherein using the second channelcomprises using data traffic for the second part of the data session.10. A system comprising: a terrestrial base station; a first channelhaving a first characteristic, the first channel in communication withthe terrestrial base station, wherein the first channel is a Low EarthOrbit (LEO) channel and wherein a data session is established using thefirst channel, the data session comprising a cellular data backhaulsession; a second channel having a second characteristic, the secondchannel in communication with the terrestrial base station, wherein thesecond channel is a Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) channel andwherein the second characteristic is different from the firstcharacteristic; wherein a determination is made, based on the firstcharacteristic of the first channel and the second characteristic of thesecond channel and the type of traffic involved in the data session,whether the second channel should be used for the data session; and whenthe second channel should be used for the data session, then the datasession is switched from the first channel to the second channel,wherein the data session is periodically monitored to determine whetherthe second channel should continue to be used for the data session; andwherein the data session comprises a first part and a second part, andusing the first channel for the first part of the data session and usingthe second channel for the second part of the data session.
 11. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the first channel is an Internet of Things(IoT) channel.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the second channel isan IoT channel or a cellular channel.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein using the first channel comprises using the LEO, and furthercomprising communicating with the LEO using a Very Small ApertureTerminal (VSAT).
 14. The system of claim 10, wherein the firstcharacteristic is latency of the first channel and the secondcharacteristic is latency of the second channel.
 15. The system of claim10, wherein the first characteristic is cost associated with the firstchannel and the second characteristic is cost associated with the secondchannel.
 16. The system of claim 10, wherein the first characteristic isan availability of the first channel.
 17. The system of claim 10,wherein the first characteristic is at least one Quality of Service(QOS) performance metric associated with the data session.
 18. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein using the first channel comprises usingsignaling data for the first part of the data session and wherein usingthe second channel comprises using data traffic for the second part ofthe data session.